When is an exploding corpse not an exploding corpse? An appeal court in Florida has just ruled that a corpse cannot be described legally as exploding unless that is how “the man on the street” would describe it. The court rejected the case of a woman who had sued her insurance company when it

The legal profession is not famed for a temperate stance towards alcohol. In 1859, Charles Dickens observed that the law is “certainly not behind any other learned profession in its Bacchanalian propensities”. Occasionally, trouble related to a drunken lawyer comes before the courts. In an unusual

The relationship between law and religion can generate curious conundrums. One modern challenge for the courts in various jurisdictions has been whether the religious rituals of Rastafarianism should permit its believers to use marijuana when the general law prohibits that conduct. Fresh

Law reports began in the 13th century but were of variable quality for centuries. When one law report cited to Chief Justice Holt in 1704 turned out to have omitted an important fact he erupted in frustration. “See the inconvenience of the scrambling reports,” he spluttered. “They will make us

The recreational pursuit known as a “food fight” is usually a mischief of the young and does not end in court. A food fight among senior citizens leading to a criminal prosecution is a rarity for most legal systems. In Wilkesboro, North Carolina, a criminal court will soon hear an unusual food

Golf was once described by John Cunningham as “a game in which a ball (one and a half inches in diameter) is placed on a ball (eight thousand miles in diameter), the object being to hit the small ball but not the larger”. A case in California brought by a model called Liz Dickson will now examine

For some people, temporary amnesia after heavy drinking is not problematic. This is illustrated by the story of a man who goes into a pub one morning and asks the bartender: “Did I come in here last night and spend a £50 note on drink?” When the bartender replies “yes”, the man says “oh, thank heck

If you go down to the courts today you’re sure of a big surprise. You needn’t go in disguise but every bear that ever there was will gather there for sure because an injured teddy bear is at the centre of a felony assault charge. It is a complex case for the prosecution, certainly not a picnic. At

When real estate and real love become entangled, the law always has a challenge in unthreading the knots. In Japan, a group of single men and women are suing real estate agents for 200 million yen (more than £1 million), alleging that they were tricked into buying property by misrepresentations of

It is rare that an appeal court argument about the philosophy of the American constitution is triggered by a drunk man who briefly fell asleep under a bus shelter. The Indiana Court of Appeals, however, has recently been occupied with that matter, and the meaning of the word “annoy”. In 2012